Dwelling in campervans: homemaking and mobile neighbouring on the move

ABSTRACT

This article is concerned with tourist dwelling and mobile neighbouring in Volkswagen campervans. It takes notions of dwelling and neighbouring to the spaces that tourists inhabit away from home, extending philosophical debates on dwelling-in-mobilities to the actual temporary dwellings of tourists. A dwelling perspective focuses the attention on the binding acts of homemaking and neighbouring on the move, rather than on the bounded spaces of home, transforming home from a noun into a verb. For dwelling to be relevant to tourism mobilities, however, a more lineal and processual approach to habitation is necessary, which emphasises how dwelling emerges during travel, alongside others. This article reports on empirical findings from ethnographic and autoethnographic research on Volkswagen Campervan, filling a gap in knowledge concerning mobile homes in lifestyle mobilities. The article unpacks the domestic rituals, homely feelings and family memories that are contained within these vehicles. We also explore the social relations that are formed and performed on the move, as being is always being-with others. The case of campervans shows that home is a journey as well as a place, a question of becoming as well as emplacement.

KEYWORDS:

• Dwelling
• mobile neighbouring
• homemaking
• campervans
• tourism mobilities
• ethnography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).